The roll continued on Tuesday as the Irish ran their winning streak to six straight with a sweep of Lutheran North by scores of 8-0 and 4-2. Game one was a tight one most of the way as an RBI double from Luke Shilling and an RBI single from Joey Agro put the Irish up 2-0 early in support of starter Mark Marrone. The senior was brilliant throughout in earning his third win of the year, giving up only an infield single and four walks in the complete game shutout. He struck out ten. The ballgame broke wide open in the NDP half of the sixth inning as Ryan Knutson’s bases loaded walk brought across the third run before Jake Depillo delivered a grand slam homer deep to left field. Junior Adam Burnick added an RBI single to close out the scoring. In game two junior Patrick Bridges earned his first varsity win with 4 1/3 innings of work, allowing two earned runs on four hits. Will Mullen entered the game with two runners on in the 5th and was dominant in striking out the first hitter he faced before catcher Ryan Knutson ended the threat by picking the lead runner off third with a snap throw. Mullen earned the save by striking out all seven hitters he faced. The Irish offense was divided throughout the lineup with lead off man Mat Bur, five spot hitter Joey Vyskocil and nine spot hitter Joe Mukhtar all delivering RBI singles. The sweep of the critical home and home series with Lutheran Lutheran North on Monday and Tuesday has propelled NDP into second place in the division at 10-5-1 and 13-8-1 overall. “Our defense has been great over this last week and everyone is contributing at the plate,” said Irish Head Coach Darren Audia. Coupled with a pitching staff that he still points to as the linchpin of his club and you see a coach who sees a team on a roll. “Mark Marrone was brilliant and we got a really nice performance from Patrick Bridges tonight,” said Audia, but it was the relief performance by Mullen that really caught his attention. “Will was fantastic tonight and really seems to be peaking at the right time.” The Irish are off until Saturday when they visit Allen Park Cabrini in another critical division matchup.
